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Ubuntu One had a client application that runs on Ubuntu9.04 and later or Windows XP or newer, and Mac OS X10.6 and higher. Other Linux distributions not running GNOME were supported through a console client.[5] The source code is available through launchpad and can easily be compiled for other Unix-like operating systems such as FreeBSD.[6] There was an Ubuntu One music app for iOS devices.[7] A free Ubuntu One account offered 5 GB of storage.

Ubuntu One offered automatic upload of photos taken from Android mobile devices for immediate synchronization across computers; integration with Mozilla Thunderbird for contacts and with Tomboy for notes due to the access to the local CouchDB instance.[9] It also had capabilities for purchasing DRM-free music while synchronizing them automatically with an Ubuntu One Account via the Ubuntu One Music Store (in partnership with 7digital).

Ubuntu One published APIs for developers wishing to build applications with file and data synchronization or music streaming.

An Ubuntu One account gave users access to the Canonical Store, Launchpad, Ubuntu One and other Ubuntu services; an Ubuntu One account allowed users to store files within the cloud, store their contacts details within the interface, access the Ubuntu One Music Store to buy music from and activate the Ubuntu Software Center. Other sites that support OpenID authorization also had support for Ubuntu One.[citation needed]

On June 2013, the Ubuntu Single Sign On account was re-branded under Ubuntu One as part of consolidating Canonical's online services under the Ubuntu One brand. Also, the announcement identified Ubuntu Pay as another service to come under the brand. Following a security breach in July 2013, Canonical put the Ubuntu Forums under the brand, meaning that Forum users now log in using Ubuntu One, rather than with the previous username-password system.

On April 2, 2014, Canonical announced shutting down of select Ubuntu One services. As of the day of announcement, it was no longer possible to purchase storage space or music. File services would be unavailable from June 1, but existing users were allowed to download their content until July 31, when all stored data would be permanently deleted.[4][10] Canonical explained that they were not willing to make more investment in Ubuntu One, which would be required to compete with other services. Instead, their priority is making a "converged operating system for phones, tablets, desktops."[4] The company also announced plans to release the source code for the Ubuntu One server software to the public under an open-source license. The shutdown of cloud storage and synchronization services does not affect the single sign-on function of Ubuntu One, which will remain in place.

On July 31, 2014 the service was shutdown and all of the users files were deleted.

Ubuntu One has been criticized within the Ubuntu community for using proprietary server software.[14][15]

There was no native client integration for the Kubuntu variant of the Ubuntu operating system, as of January 2013.[16][17] Kubuntu integration was under development and had also received a grant from the Google Summer of Code 2010.

Further criticism concerned the unclear revenue share that would be granted to the community.[citation needed] The Amarok development team announced that they would not add support for the Ubuntu One Music Store to the Amarok media player for the moment,[18] unlike the Magnatune media store, which returns 10% of the revenue produced via the interface to Amarok.[19]